


Somewhere in my Heart of Hearts (I knew it all along, but I'm still finding out)

by leaves_from_the_vine



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Café, Canon Compliant, Coffee Shops, M/M, Oohira is done with Tendou's shite, Smiling Ushijima Wakatoshi, Tendou Satori also hates valentines day, Tendou Satori hates coffee, Valentendou Week 2021, Valentine's Day, Volleyball Dorks in Love, shobio exists for 5 seconds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:01:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29381739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leaves_from_the_vine/pseuds/leaves_from_the_vine
Summary: Tendou Satori hates coffee and Valentines Day, but he doesn't hate the café near school, nor does he hate Ushijima Wakatoshi.--For Valentendou Week on Twitter!
Relationships: Tendou Satori/Ushijima Wakatoshi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31
Collections: Valentendou Week





	Somewhere in my Heart of Hearts (I knew it all along, but I'm still finding out)

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s a super short one shot I wrote for Day 3 of Valentendou Week 2021 on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/valentendou?s=09). I probably won’t be able to do any of the other days because of school, but I hope you enjoy this one!  
> __  
> Prompt:  
> Flower Shop; Café; Soulmates/Cupid;  
> “They’re so pretty.” “Not as pretty as you.”  
> \--  
> Title from "Last Night" by Ricky Montgomery

It surprises a lot of people, really, that Tendou absolutely despises coffee. One would think, with all his endearing eccentricities, that Tendou is constantly living on some sort of espresso high, but, as he’d explained to Semi one morning while chewing on the straw of his milk carton, “that’s just the Satori way, Semi Semi.”

What’s even more surprising, however, is that even though he hates coffee and the way the bitterness slices across his tongue like an acrid dagger, Tendou frequents the quiet café that sits just outside of Shiratorizawa’s campus. Yes, the taste is staggering and almost unbearable, but the _smell_ of coffee is something Tendou will never tire of. He is reminded of that fact when he steps into the shop and takes a deep breath, the bell above the door tinkling quietly and fading swiftly into the quiet hum of espresso machines and space heaters. The ambience envelopes Tendou whole as he waltzes up to the counter and smiles at his friend behind the counter. 

“Good afternoon, Reon-kun!” Tendou’s slender finger is centimeters from jabbing into his friend’s cheek when Reon rolls his eyes and ducks away from the offending hand. “What’s good today, Benkei?” 

Reon sighs with resigned exasperation and deadpans “You mean, besides the coffee?”

Tendou only cackles, drawing both glares and concerned glances from what few customers occupy the café. Tendou grins and reaches a hand out again, succeeding in jabbing his pointer finger into Reon’s cheek multiple times. “You know me so well, Reon-kun!” Tendou quips, “one might mistake you for my peer!” 

Reon attempts to duck away from Tendou’s hands again, but the latter leans over the counter and follows Reon’s swerves effortlessly. 

“How old are you?” Reon sighs. He has resorted to grabbing Tendou’s hand and pushing it back over the counter as he reads out the coffee-free specials. 

Tendou’s face pinches at the name of one specialty tea that he doesn’t recognise. “Valentendou Hojicha?” He repeats, when Reon finishes.

“We thought you’d get a kick out of that.” Reon comments, the corners of his mouth lifting into a lazy grin. 

“While I’m all for having tea named after me, why’d you have to make it all Valentiney?” Tendou waves his arms around him in exaggerated distress, and he watches Reon’s grin fall.

“No.” Reon shakes his head incredulously, and it’s his turn to jab a finger at Tendou, shoving it into his chest instead of his cheek, “You don’t get to be the way that you are, and then not like Valentine’s day!”

“The way that I am?” Tendou raises an eyebrow, slackening his face and working up the most intimidating stare he can muster.

“That doesn’t work on me, Tendou. You know what I mean.” Reon waves his hand in front of his face, dismissing the misunderstanding.

“It’s not that I _hate_ Valentines day!” Tendou blabs, “I’ll take that drink by the way, can’t pass up a drink so graciously named after me, after all. Valentine’s day is simply pointless! I know for a fact you’ve heard it all before - about it being a commercial holiday and yada yada yada.” 

Reon punches in Tendou’s order before calling to a coworker “The legend himself wants a Valentendou!” He looks back at Tendou and leans on the counter, considering his friend for a moment, who is busy trying to uncover each customers’ deepest insecurities with a simple glance (it’s a fun game he likes to play, and he definitely doesn’t play it to ignore every insecurity biting at him from the pit of his empty stomach… no way).

“Like what you see, Reon-kun?” Tendou asked airily, eyes still flitting from patron to patron.

“Are you sure you just don’t like Valentine’s day bec-”

“What a silly question, Benkei-kun!” Tendou interrupts, taking yet another jab at Reon’s cheek, eyes still roaming. “Even with a Valentine, it’s just like any other day.” 

“Whatever you say, Tendou.” One of his coworkers hands Reon a steaming cup, and Reon passes it to Tendou, who overtly cringes at the pink and red hearts scattered around the cup in some attempt at Valentine’s decoration. 

“ _Azasu_ , Benkei-kun.” Tendou singsongs, whisking himself away to a table in a corner of the café and resuming his observations. As he shifts his gaze to the opposite corner of the shop, Tendou recognises the weirdo duo from the team that had defeated his a few months earlier. Tendou watches with inquisition as the two, who are seated side by side in the same booth, as opposed to across from each other, speak to each other comfortably in hushed voices. Tendou recalls watching their childlike bickering from across the court, and the gazes they’d spare for each other when they thought no one was looking, and certain things click into place. Tendou grits his teeth at the memories, bitter as coffee, that begin to surface at watching the duo in the corner. He tears his eyes away just as the clinking of the bell above the door fills the shop once more, before dwindling away. Tendou lifts his gaze curiously to the door, only to find the looming customer already looking at him, a rather uncharacteristic grin threatening to break out on the man’s face.

“What a pleasant surprise, Ushijima!” Reon calls to him from the counter, and Ushijima lets his eyes linger on Tendou for a millisecond more before sauntering over to the counter to order. Tendou’s eyes, however, never left Ushijima, even once his back was turned towards Tendou. Besides, there’s no harm in checking out your best friend if he can’t see you, right? 

During his somewhat one-sided conversation with Ushijima, Reon’s eyes wander over to where Tendou sat, and Tendou raises his eyebrows in bemusement. Reon quickly averts his eyes back to Ushijima, who’s nodding along to whatever Reon’s going on about. Seconds later, the coworker from earlier pushes out of the kitchen and passes Reon a plain coffee cup, lacking the hearts and overall sickly-sweet Valentines-ness that Tendou’s cup exudes. Reon scribbles Ushijima’s name on the side of the cup and places it in his outstretched hand.

Ushijima nods his head and gives Reon a much more polite thanks than what Tendou had given him, and the two find themselves locking eyes again. Attempting to ignore the way Ushijima’s expression seems softer than before, Tendou waves him over and points to the chair across from him, “Come sit with me, Wakatoshi-kun!” 

“Thank you, Satori.” Ushijima’s deep voice never fails to catch Tendou off guard, but now it seems softer around the edges, displaying some kind of depth Tendou could never have expected from Ushijima, not that he minded. Tendou had realized, at the start of his second year in high school, that a lot of people only tolerated Ushijima, finding his bluntness unnerving, and hating the way that he always spoke his truth, almost always having evidence to back up his claims. Tendou, however, has always appreciated how open Ushijima is - he’s basked in his huge friend’s candor, because while he is excellent at knowing what someone feels or wants at a glance, Tendou still finds it utterly exhausting. “That’s a nice cup.”

“Why thank you, Wakatoshi-kun.” Tendou chirps in response, tracing the decorations with slender fingers, “I suppose it comes special with their seasonal drink.” Tendou grins somewhat of a wicked grin, one that, no matter how many times Tendou does it, Ushijima will never pick up on.

“Seasonal drink?” Ushijima questions, falling into Tendou’s trap.

“Haven’t you heard, Wakatoshi-kun? They’ve named a drink after me!” Tendou claps, gesturing wildly in his seat.

“That’s nice. I didn’t know you paid attention to the holidays.”

Ignoring the biting wonder at how Ushijima knew that about him, Tendou waves a hand in front of him dismissively “Oh, I don’t, but it’s nice to have a namesake, even if the cup is hideous.” 

Tendou’s eyes linger on the cleft between Ushijima’s brows as he furrows them. He’s tooth achingly adorable when he’s conflicted, Tendou decides. “I like the decoration,” Ushijima states, eyes meeting Tendou’s “especially the flowers.” 

For someone who prides himself in paying attention to detail, Tendou hadn’t noticed the roses bordering the top and bottom of the cup, but of course (of course!) Wakatoshi-kun would. “Hm, I suppose they are pretty, aren’t they?”

A beat. Too long to just be a breath. Too long to deny that something’s changed in the air. One sentence is all it takes.

Then, Tendou’s entire world bursts at the seams when Ushijima smiles - a real, heartstopping smile, stretching from ear to ear - and says “Not as pretty as you, Satori.”

Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> tysm for reading!!!
> 
> If you want to yell at me about these funky gay volleyball players, or more abstract things (such as the connection between tolerance and physical/geographical location _and _how it translates into everything we create), feel free to stalk my[Twitter](https://twitter.com/okay_then_buddy) :D__
> 
> _  
> _Comments and Kudos absolutely make my day, and thank you so much again for reading!!!__  
> 


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